Once Upon A Hallway
by akaiciel
Summary: Rei meets Kai for the first time - and finds out that his new team captain isn't quite what he was expecting.


**Shameless Plug**: go to www.redblade.org !  
  


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**Once Upon a Hallway...**

  
  
He had a scar. Just a long, pale echo, it blended in naturally with his sun-starved complexion and was completely invisible from a distance. If Rei had seen a similar mark on Lei's arm, or even on Takao's, it would have been dismissed before it had even been noticed. On Kai, however... It just looked wrong. Not the fact that he was scarred at all, but that it followed such a crooked path. If Kai was going to be blemished, it only seemed right that it should be in the thin, deliberate line of an architect's pencil. This mark looked more like the best attempt of a five-year-old. As with so many things about Kai Hiwatari, it just didn't seem right.   
  
He was the brand new captain of their brand new team - but he hadn't seemed excited by this news. Truth be told, he hadn't even seemed interested. Rei had been surprised by this reaction - or, more precisely, the lack thereof - but not shocked; it matched perfectly the profile Mr. Dickenson had set before him just days before.   
  
Rei had first met the man who would become his mentor when he was just seven years old, one of many prospects on a worldwide talent search initiated by the BBA. Every year, the old man had come back to his village, met with Rei privately to help him with his beyblading. It was a ritual that left Rei hungry for the outside world, and had resulted in the promise that would cause him to leave his home.   
  
"If you ever step outside your village, Rei, I can guarantee you a place on the best team the BBA has to offer."   
  
The best team the BBA had to offer... It had been a tempting thought, even back when everything in his world was insisting that he wanted to stay with his family and friends. Having finally left and calmed the itch in his feet, Rei had been very eager to find out exactly what the best team the BBA had to offer would be like.   
  
Not once had he imagined that such a team could possibly be headed up by someone as antisocial, arrogant and rude as Kai. And just why was this antisocial, arrogant, rude new leader kneeling down in the corridor anyway?   
  
Curiosity firmly in place, Rei sat next to him as quietly as possible, drawing on the skills he'd picked up in hide-and-seek all those years before. He didn't want to annoy this boy, but he really wanted to know just what Kai was doing. Besides, they'd have to speak sooner or later.   
  
"Go back to the party."   
  
Suddenly Rei fancied sooner. Nodding his head at Kai's beyblade, he asked, "What are you doing?" Any kind of captain would want to share his knowledge with the team; it was the perfect conversation opener.   
  
"I'm playing baseball. What does it look like?"   
  
Rei groaned inwardly. Great, he thought. Dripping with sarcasm, just the way I like my team leaders. "It looks like you're staring into space," he said airily. "I thought you might be in shock, that's all."   
  
"Shock about what?" Kai drawled, but Rei could hear the bite behind it. "Takao fluked out. It happens. It won't happen again, but even total amateurs get a lucky break sometimes." He turned his attention back to his blade, apparently deciding that was enough conversation for one day.   
  
Ordered around, and then dismissed - just like a servant. It was everything Rei had heard about rich kids confirmed. "That seems a little unfair," he commented, casting a sideways glance at Kai. "From where I sat, it looked like he used some pretty serious tactical thinking to beat you."   
  
Kai threw him a look of contempt. "Where you sat was in the stands with all the other losers, watching the guy you let go spin against the guy you should have been fighting." His voice was cold and cutting; he probably didn't even realise he was paying out a compliment. "Of _course_ you wanted to believe that match was anything but a fluke."   
  
"What?" Rei exclaimed. "But Kai, that match was-"   
  
He stood up.   
  
Why is that a big deal? Rei thought. He had faced down numerous people when beyblading, fighting, even just talking - but Kai stood up and Rei closed his mouth.   
  
Was this why Mr. Dickinson picked him to lead us three?   
  
"You thought I was just staring at my blade because you don't use your eyes, Rei."   
  
Rei wanted to ask this overbearing stranger how he could say something like that when he hadn't made eye contact once in their conversation - but he wanted more to see what Kai was going to say next.   
  
Kai was still. Rei hadn't realised town-dwellers could be that still. "Before you disturbed me, I was looking for flaws using a technique called-"   
  
"Streeting," Rei finished for him. He had known that pose had looked familiar; akin to meditation, streeting depended on the absolute balance and focus of a blader perfectly in tune with his blade. Rei was impressed that Kai was attempting it - from what he had seen, streeting was near impossible to master, and the younger you were, the harder it was.   
  
"You've heard of it."   
  
"I've come across it once or twice," Rei said with a shrug. "There was this woman in Denmark who-"   
  
"You're lazy, Rei."   
  
Rei almost burst out laughing. "Lazy?" He had devoted his life to this sport, learning all he possibly could and travelling around the world to do it! When he thought of all that he'd given up... The idea was ridiculous. "How am I lazy?" he challenged. Kai narrowed his eyes.   
  
"You ask questions when you can't be bothered to think of the answers. All those party tricks you've picked up? They're every bit as useless as you are if you don't practise them until they're natural. Instead of wasting time displaying your already obvious arrogance, you should be focusing on your opponent."   
  
Is that what you are, Kai? My opponent? Rei shook off the thought. "Look, Kai," he said reasonably, "I realise you probably weren't too impressed with me forfeiting that match against Takao, but-"   
  
"I couldn't care less about your pathetic excuse for a match against that pathetic excuse for a beyblader. I'm going to get to the world championships, and I don't want some streetblading punk who thinks he knows everything weighing me down. That's all."   
  
He turned around and strode through the nearest door, no doubt to find a quieter place to concentrate.   
  
Some team.   
  
How could he be our team captain? Rei wondered. How could he be any team's captain? Rei shook his head. Kai had a scar all right, but whether or not you could see it wasn't down to good eyesight. He had something to prove that had nothing to do with Rei or the team, and he didn't care who knew it.   
  
Lazy. He'd been cutting, and he'd been conceited, but Rei had to wonder: had he actually been right? He was the least inspiring leader ever... but he knew what he was talking about, and he'd said that Rei was being lazy. Was he worth giving the benefit of the doubt?   
  
That night, Rei blew the dust off his notebooks and read over all the techniques, tips and tactics he'd picked up since leaving home. He discovered that he had retained a few of the skills written down, but most were unpractised at best and entirely forgotten at worst.   
  
That settled it. Uninspiring, insulting and blunt as he may be, Kai was also someone worth listening to.   
  
Which meant that Rei had some serious work to do.  
  


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I actually wrote this a few months ago and dug it up today to polish off. It's unbetaed, but Dew's been through it and assured me that it's fine to post, so here it is! Written purely because I thought of the description "long, pale echo" to describe a scar, this was a nice time-killer while I wait for the fourth installment of Senses to be betaed. Yes, that's a shameless plug; read and review my other fics - that one in particular - and I'll love you forever! However, please feel free to review any of my pieces in all the detail you please - constructive criticism is, as always, very welcome, both publicly or by email!  
  
**Shameless Plug**: Read _China In Your Hand_, my collaboration with **diamond dew**! It's on my favourite stories list, and our pen-name (Akai and diamond dew. Original, hey?) is on my favourite authors. ^^;;; Yes, I'm a shameless self-promoter.  
  
Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!  
  



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